Oct 14, 2008

Stable and psychologically sound

We can all agree that only stable and psychologically sound men should be admitted to the seminary and ordained to the priesthood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Homosexuality is an objective disorder.

Someone with an objective disorder cannot be entirely stable and psychologically sound. Bishops should not admit them to ordination, as the Church said in 1961.

Now, someone who has homosexual temptations but sincerely resists them, tries to get rid of them and seeks to live chastely and stay in God's grace can be a good Catholic. But isn't it best for them to decide to live their Catholic lives in the lay state, not the clerical?

After all, if they "fall" when in the lay state, that gives far less scandal than if they "fall" after they have received Holy Orders.

What about someone who fights homosexual temptations who has already been ordained and is sincerely serving as a priest? The past cannot be undone, and they have received the Sacrament of Holy Orders. "Thou art a priest forever..."

With God's grace and their constantly renewed total devotion to their priesthood, they can think and live and act not as "gay" at all, but solely as priests of Jesus Christ. And God will bless them for their heroic virtue.

Other priests have to fight various temptations, such as booze and heterosexual lust.

But again, young men who are fighting homosexual temptations and are sincerely trying to discern their vocations should look elsewhere than the seminary and the priesthood.

8 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Please visit http://johnmalloysdb.blogspot.com/ and read the October 15, 2008 post onSt. Victor's Pastor Defends Marriage! Let us pray for the pastor of St. Victor that God will protect him and all those who defend marriage!

I suggest one and all go to The Vatican website, and the USCCB website to discern what was intended in the term "objectively disordered" used in documents intended for Catholic bishops. If that doesn't work, ask your bishop to be honest and frank to explain what was intended or meant and why the latest documents use the term "homosexual inclination" which is also a poor definition or distinction.

This is merely my own humble opinion, but those battling SSA have gone through much in their life, whether it's abuse emotionally, physically, or what not. To allow them not to recover is to allow them to be slaved to whatever abuse that they had. Jesus came to liberate us from our old life and give us freedom in Him. Would not letting them stay as such just say you can't accomplish anything? that's just my own opinion.

The best way to get over SSA is clearly in the Lay State where scandal is less likely.

I think you and I would generally agree on this, but I think you go a little too far by suggesting that no man who struggles with SSA should be admitted.

I absolutely agree that we need to have Bishops and vocations directors and seminaries that are very discerning of all the candidates.

I also agree that for those who have fallen into the Homosexual lifestyle and culture have much to overcome, and a blanket ban is probably justifiable, although I would allow candidates to petition for their individual case to be reviewed.

Where I disagree is that SSA is not the only way to be disordered. To blanket ban all SSA would be a false sense of security. Seminarians and candidates would be discouraged from honestly revealing slight or brief SSA that many men experienced as teenagers.

Heterosexual men can also be very disordered. Promiscuity, pornography, and etc.. I would not want a man who had lived promiscuously, or was addicted to pornography to be ordained too quickly or easily either.

However, St. Augustine led a lifestyle we might today think disqualified him for the priesthood.

I believe that the answer is in discernment as already mentioned. Not in total bans.

I don't subscribe to the notion of "slight and brief [homosexual attraction] that many men experienced as teenagers."

That notion originated with the perversion propagandist Alfred Kinsey, whose books have now been meticulously discredited, especially by the scholar Dr. Judith Reisman.

Kinsey largely made up his "data" so he could announce the "conclusions" he wanted to. He was the one who came up with the lies that 10% of everyone was homosexual and that many more had committed one or more homosexual acts or other unnatural acts.

Also, by mentioning homosexuality I wasn't trying to imply that that was the only problem to be guarded against. Other sexual and psychological problems need to be found, too.

But there is an important distinction: Heterosexual attraction is natural, but homosexual attraction is not. That is why St. Augustine could be ordained.

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